Guide
When to use Guides
Guide pages are useful when you want to group together a collection of connected pages. If there's content that's relative to the user completing a task, but it doesn't follow a strict process, you should use the guide format.
They are useful if you want to give someone a range of information on one subject. The user can use the 'Next' button to move through the guide. However, they do not need to read every page in order, like in a step by step.
Examples include:
- types of animal welfare licences
- changing a birth record
- coroners
- sheltered housing
Video guide
Please see this video guide by content designer Ben Hills-Jones.
Examples in the wild
Dumfries & Galloway: Funded early learning and childcare
Woking: Health and safety at work
Layout options
In February 2025 we included two new site wide layout options for guides:
- 'stacked' heading pattern
- vertical list of pages within a guide
See an example on our demo site.
This change follows best practice in the NHS design system.
To enable these changes:
- Click on the 'Appearance' tab
Click on your active theme
Look for these new controls and enable the ones you want
If you can't see these controls, ask your dev to:
- check localgov_base and localgov_guides are up to date
- make these changes if you don't have the required access
It's best practice to try this on a dev site first, to ensure your guide pages look OK with the changes.